Rock and Roll is alive and well! At least the guitar wielding wildman of Rock and Roll is alive and kicking, albeit he maybe be wounded a bit. Seems as though ’70s rocker (I love that term) Ted Nugent is in the limelight again. After a rant at the NRA convention a couple weeks ago that gained him some additional national attention (and a visit from the Secret Service), Nugent got crossways with the Alaskan Department of Wildlife.

Nugent — who is famous for so many things, especially his antics on and off stage — is a huge promoter of our Second Amendment rights and the promotion of hunting and fishing for all.

“If you’re not doing something to promote the sport of hunting and fishing, your inaction is helping to destroy it,” a paraphrase of Nugent’s cry for action. Host of the Outdoor Channel’s “Spirit of the Wild” television show, an award-winning “whack’em and stack’em” expose of Nugent’s daily hunting ritual, Nugent is one of the most recognizable faces in the outdoor industry. Like it or not.

I have to confess, I’ve been a big fan of Nugent most of my life (think ’70s rocker) because he was promoting hunting when hunting wasn’t cool. His self-titled album cover had bows and arrows laying all around the room, and that was back in the early ’70s. That was pretty cool to an impressionable high school student who gravitated to music that preferred to be played a little louder than most. I also have to confess, my wife can’t stand him and tells me so every time she hears his voice coming out of our television.

Being shocked that Nugent said some politically incorrect things is like poking yourself in the eye and being surprised that it hurt. It’s Ted Nugent, for Pete’s sake! What did you expect? It’s like inviting Rosie O’Donald to your reception and complaining that she ate all your appetizers. Ted Nugent is outspoken and says what lots of people don’t want to hear — the truth.

Nugent got crossways with the Alaskan game wardens when he aired a “Spirit of the Wild” show on The Outdoor Channel where his arrow missed the mark of a black bear. He didn’t recover the bear, saying it was barely hit and not mortally wounded. He continued to hunt and successfully harvested a black bear, or as Nugent said, and Alaskan rug steak. Seems as though ignorance of game laws is no excuse, even for famous folk, or especially for famous folk.

Apparently in six of Alaska’s 26 geographical game units, wounding a bear counts as killing a bear and a tag must be expended. When Nugent continued to hunt and killed the second bear he shot at, that counted as killing two bears in Alaska’s eyes and you can only legally kill one. You have to give Nugent credit — he put it on television for everyone to see, so it’s not like he knew what he was doing and tried to hide it. The cost of his ignorance? A $10,000 fine, two years of probation, and he can’t hunt in Alaska or any U.S. Forest Service land for one year. Plus, he’s got to do some public service announcements on his television show every other week telling viewers why you need to be familiar with the regulations in the areas that you hunt. Knowing Nugent, he’ll poke some fun at himself and make it entertaining, in the Nuge way of doing things.

Nugent must not be the sharpest knife in the drawer because if you remember, this is not his first law-breaking rodeo. Back in 2010 he was charged with 11 counts of hunting violations stemming from illegally taking a young buck while hunting over bait. Neither were legal in the area he was hunting. Interestingly, the wildlife officers weren’t out patrolling when they noticed this activity, they were watching “Spirit of the Wild “on The Outdoor Channel. Nugent videoed the segment and celebrated the kill, like the hundreds that came before and after. Seems as though ignorance in game laws is something either Nugent or his show producers need to brush up on a bit.

If you’ve ever listened to one of “Uncle” Ted’s rants, he’s always promoting the legal and ethical hunting practices as a way of life and a necessity for wildlife management. It seems as though Nugent would understand he’s under the public’s microscope and would want to brush up on the game laws in the area that he’s hunting.

Nugent’s had two strikes against him with violating game laws. The pitch is on its way and there are lots of folks out there who would love to see him swing and miss. Personally, I’d rather have Nugent in the game as opposed to sitting on the bench. It makes life much more interesting.

David Mosesso is publisher of The Jonesboro Sun. Email comments to: dmosesso@jonesborosun.com.

Well, this is certainly the most asinine piece of commentary I've read in a while. Imply that you will assassinate the president if he is reelected? Rock 'n' roll is alive and well! Cat Scratch Fever! And, hey, is that a bear over there?

What's the thesis here, anyway?

"Ted Nugent is outspoken and says what lots of people don’t want to hear — the truth," our columnist writes. Perhaps his defense of the esteemed "'70s rocker" in question stems not from logic or reason, but from a similarly skewed sense of what is appropriate political discourse.

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On an unrelated note, the writer's oft-repeated sneers toward the bit player who is Rosie O'Donnell (and whose name he misreports) grow wearisome. I presume he dislikes the woman due to her support of gun control. So why don't we talk about that rather than her weight? Continual references on the part of an aging white man to a woman's inclination to belly up to the buffet are mean-spirited at best, misogynistic at worst and either way something significantly less than what I would expect from this newspaper.

"Continual references on the part of an aging white man to a woman's inclination to belly up to the buffet are mean-spirited at best, misogynistic at worst and either way something significantly less than what I would expect from this newspaper"